The global number of mobile students in higher education has been on the rise for decades. UNESCO reports that in 2020, as many as 6.4 million students worldwide studied in a foreign country, up from 4.8 million just five years prior.

Naysayers had predicted that the coronavirus pandemic would put an end to this trend as hybrid and remote delivery options would become the norm. But it has become clear that the interest in physical mobility continues to grow. Instead, the growing number of virtual options caters to a new, growing segment of students getting their degree remotely from across borders - while there will still be a substantial and growing number of students seeking an in-person experience abroad.

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Key Drivers for Studying Abroad

Individual motivations for studying abroad can vary. Some of these drivers originate mostly inbound (i.e., from a host country’s perspective), some mostly outbound (when they are rooted in the sending country), and some are a combination of both:

• Economy: Economic circumstances are an obvious driver for students to seek education abroad. Some seek an edge when applying for jobs back in their home country; some seek to emigrate to countries with overall better career perspectives. Short-term developments in origin countries can also cause noticeable shifts in student interest - recently, for example, the galloping inflation in Turkey or the crisis in Sri Lanka have both led to more students from these countries seeking study options abroad.
• Post-study work visa: In addition to purely economic aspects, visa regulations in destination countries are an important inbound factor at least for degree-seeking students. The chance to stay and live somewhere after graduation is an important aspect of study choice, and changes in regulation immediately affect interest from sending countries. Germany is one country in Europe that offers a particularly welcoming graduate job-seeker visa.
• Elections and other political events: Elections often create visible shifts in student interest, especially if they are highly polarising. A typical example in Europe and North America is that if an election goes in favour of the right wing, there tends to be a short-lived trend of increased interest to leave that country — because students interested in mobility tend to lean toward the left of the political spectrum. For some popular destinations like the US and the UK, their elections also have a measurable impact on inbound interest. In addition to elections, other events can trigger the same: For example, the US Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to leave the question of abortion legality to the states led to a sudden surge of US outbound interest, and quite likely lower inbound interest.‍
• War: As we’re now sadly experiencing even in Europe, war forces students to be mobile. However, in the case of Ukraine, this also affected large numbers of international students who were already in the country or seeking to study there.

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Between Push and Pull

Education providers will be interested in both “push” and “pull” factors, i.e., the factors that drive demand from sending countries as well as those that affect the attractiveness of their country as a destination. Since they usually cannot influence any such developments directly, it is important to be able to adapt to them - and quickly - to ensure continued success in student recruitment.

Things can get complicated when multiple trends occur simultaneously. The United Kingdom’s attractiveness as a destination, for example, was affected by many developments in recent years: Brexit led to a surge in fees for students from the EU, diminishing application numbers from that bloc; the introduction of the UK graduate route visa scheme meanwhile triggered a large increase of student interest and thus applications from non-European countries; and more recently, a lower exchange rate for the British pound might put the country’s comparably high fees within reach for more groups of international students, at least until fees are adjusted.

Adapting to change also means clear and relevant communication with students. Uncertainty is an enemy of student mobility, and universities are in a prime position to help guide students through the daunting project of planning their studies in a foreign country.